All this talk of freak folk has put me in the mood for some Joanna Newsom. The harp is my second favourite instrument. In fact, if my parents had been immensely rich you’d be reading a harp blog right now. Come to think about it, if my parents were that rich you’d be looking at a blank page while I drove around Monaco wearing a money suit and munching on golden eagle eggs.

This tune is in the uke unfriendly key of C#m so I had a hard time working out the best way to play it. It is (just about) possible to play in standard uke C-tuning using these chords:

You can tune down half a step (to F#BD#G#) and use the following chords (I’ve left the names as they are in standard tuning to try and cut down confusion to a minimum). You could, of course, just play these shapes in standard tuning if you aren’t playing along with the record.

But my favourite, and the only in the pdf, is to use the D-tuning (aDF#B) and these chord shapes:

These shapes allow the top string to ring open through the chords creating a pivot note. It’s also these reason I chose this shape for C#m rather than just barring across the second fret.